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by clicking the plus signs. Then click the plus sign next to the Setup
folder.
Click on the ServiceStartup folder.
In the right frame, these should be the only entries you see

Name - (Default)
Type - REG_SZ
Value - (not set)

If there are any other Names listed besides (Default), then right click
them, and choose Delete.
Close the registry editor by clicking all of the minus signs all the way
back to My Computer. Exit the registry editor.

[*** NOTE: *** DO NOT delete anything else from the registry, please.
Improper editing of the registry may render the system inoperable.]

MaryE wrote:
> I have tried repeatedly to install Windows Update and receive error after
> files are downloaded and install fails. Any suggestions? I have been unable
> to get any updates in quite a while.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I followed your instructions and there was
nothing except the "default" entry. Any other suggestions

"MowGreen [MVP]" wrote:
> MaryE,
>
> Go to Start > Run > type in
>
> regedit
> Click OK
> Navigate to
>
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Setup
>
> by clicking the plus signs. Then click the plus sign next to the Setup
> folder.
> Click on the ServiceStartup folder.
> In the right frame, these should be the only entries you see
>
> Name - (Default)
> Type - REG_SZ
> Value - (not set)
>
> If there are any other Names listed besides (Default), then right click
> them, and choose Delete.
> Close the registry editor by clicking all of the minus signs all the way
> back to My Computer. Exit the registry editor.
>
> [*** NOTE: *** DO NOT delete anything else from the registry, please.
> Improper editing of the registry may render the system inoperable.]
>
> Restart the system.
> Revisit Windows Updates.
>
> Did that resolve the issue ?
>
>
> MowGreen [MVP 2003-2007]
> ===============
> *-343-* FDNY
> Never Forgotten
> ===============
>
>
>
> MaryE wrote:
>
> > I have tried repeatedly to install Windows Update and receive error after
> > files are downloaded and install fails. Any suggestions? I have been unable
> > to get any updates in quite a while.
>

MaryE wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestion. I followed your instructions and there was
> nothing except the "default" entry. Any other suggestions
>
> "MowGreen [MVP]" wrote:
>
>
>>MaryE,
>>
>>Go to Start > Run > type in
>>
>>regedit
>>Click OK
>>Navigate to
>>
>>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Setup
>>
>>by clicking the plus signs. Then click the plus sign next to the Setup
>>folder.
>>Click on the ServiceStartup folder.
>>In the right frame, these should be the only entries you see
>>
>>Name - (Default)
>>Type - REG_SZ
>>Value - (not set)
>>
>>If there are any other Names listed besides (Default), then right click
>>them, and choose Delete.
>>Close the registry editor by clicking all of the minus signs all the way
>>back to My Computer. Exit the registry editor.
>>
>>[*** NOTE: *** DO NOT delete anything else from the registry, please.
>>Improper editing of the registry may render the system inoperable.]
>>
>>Restart the system.
>>Revisit Windows Updates.
>>
>>Did that resolve the issue ?
>>
>>
>>MowGreen [MVP 2003-2007]
>>===============
>> *-343-* FDNY
>>Never Forgotten
>>===============
>>
>>
>>
>>MaryE wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I have tried repeatedly to install Windows Update and receive error after
>>>files are downloaded and install fails. Any suggestions? I have been unable
>>>to get any updates in quite a while.
>>

If it says "Install is not needed since Windows Update Agent is
already installed", run WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe with the command
line switch /wuforce, like this:

WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe /wuforce

Click Start > Run > click the Browse button
Click the Desktop icon in the left frame
Click on WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe, then click the Open button
The command line will appear as

"C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Desktop\WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe"

Click on the command and it will highlight in blue. Now left click once
after the last quotation mark "
Press the Space Bar once, then copy&paste this - /wuforce

The command will now look like -

"C:\Documents and
Settings\<UserName>\Desktop\WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe" /wuforce
(<UserName> is your User Account's name)
Click OK to run it.
Restart the system and try to access Windows Update once more.

hi MVP, i m having the same problem.i want to dowload the latest version of
msn messenger and it tells me i should do a windows update..but while i m
doing it after showing dowload 100% and copy 100%, it shows this type of
error 0x800703e3. Can you help me too?

Ran into this problem on Server 2003 SP2 and none of about 6 other proposed solutions worked. No, I didn't have antivirus software running. This is how I ultimately was able to "fix" this.

Find the right standalone Windows Update installer, in my case it was the 3.0 version for Server 2003.

Run the installer and watch for the temp directory it creates before displaying the Next button in the wizard. If you miss it, just look for a recently created GUID directory off the root of the drive it was unzipped on.

Go into this directory, and you'll see a number of .dll files that correspond to those in the windows system directory.

As a sanity check, use explorer to check the file properties of wuweb.dll in the system directory and the wuweb.dll in the unzip directory, and compare the file versions. Make sure you're installing later versions of these files. Or it might be easier to just check the windowsupdate.log file - it records the file versions in the previous failed installs.

Now copy each of the .dll files in the unzip directory to a new directory. In addition to these files, there are .exe, .cpl and language enable files you'll need to copy. The language enabled files will need to be renamed to the appropriate filename, e.g.:
wuaucpl.cpl.mui_en => wuaucpl.cpl.mui

Then for each of the files in your new directory, copy the existing system files off somewhere, e.g.:

md backup && for %a in (*.*) do copy \windows\system32\%a backup

Boot to a safe mode command line and copy the new set of files into the system directory. At this point you can run the windows update installer again and check the windowsupdate.log file again - I missed one file doing this and it pointed out the version I missed. If you copied the files correctly the log will show there was nothing to do.

Yes, this is a PITA, but if I done this in the first place instead of trying the various proposed "solutions" it would have saved me several aggravating hours. I don't, however, know if this removes the underlying problem or whether it might happen again on the next attempted update.

I have tried repeatedly to install Windows Update and receive error after
files are downloaded and install fails. Any suggestions? I have been unable
to get any updates in quite a while.

Previous Posts In This Thread:

On Wednesday, October 25, 2006 9:18 AM
Mary wrote:

Error 0x800703e3 when trying to install Windows update program.
I have tried repeatedly to install Windows Update and receive error after
files are downloaded and install fails. Any suggestions? I have been unable
to get any updates in quite a while.

by clicking the plus signs. Then click the plus sign next to the Setup
folder.
Click on the ServiceStartup folder.
In the right frame, these should be the only entries you see

Name - (Default)
Type - REG_SZ
Value - (not set)

If there are any other Names listed besides (Default), then right click
them, and choose Delete.
Close the registry editor by clicking all of the minus signs all the way
back to My Computer. Exit the registry editor.

[*** NOTE: *** DO NOT delete anything else from the registry, please.
Improper editing of the registry may render the system inoperable.]

I had the same error and couldn't fix it with the methods described in all the
I had the same error and couldn't fix it with the methods described in all
the threads around here. Finally I found the mistake I made.

Sometime ago there was a workaround for the problem that terminal server
users were announced to install updates on the terminal server.
The workaround was to remove file permissions on the WUAUCLT1.EXE and
WUAUCLT.EXE files for these users.
So did I.

And this caused the problem described in this thread. Restoring the original
file permissions and restarting the terminal server solved the thing
immediately.

If it says "Install is not needed since Windows Update Agent is
already installed", run WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe with the command
line switch /wuforce, like this:

WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe /wuforce

Click Start > Run > click the Browse button
Click the Desktop icon in the left frame
Click on WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe, then click the Open button
The command line will appear as

"C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Desktop\WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe"

Click on the command and it will highlight in blue. Now left click once
after the last quotation mark "
Press the Space Bar once, then copy&paste this - /wuforce

The command will now look like -

"C:\Documents and
Settings\<UserName>\Desktop\WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe" /wuforce
(<UserName> is your User Account's name)
Click OK to run it.
Restart the system and try to access Windows Update once more.

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